VENDER VIGILANTE.(The Talk of the Town)

When Councilman Alan Gerson walks the streets of his district, which covers most of downtown Manhattan below Houston, he hardly notices the pleasant cafes, cast-iron buildings, and hip boutiques. He sees "vending anarchy": peddlers everywhere, jostling for space along the already overcrowded sidewalks, posing a threat to public safety, sanitation, and peace of mind. Gerson is a problem solver by nature, so he has convened a task force to bring some order to the vending situation, and the other day, with temperatures in the nineties, he set out to illustrate the intractability of the problem. He had on jeans, a plaid shirt, and a baseball cap, with a sports jacket slung over his arm. First stop: an air-conditioned cafe on Houston Street.

By Gerson's count, there are more than a dozen kinds of street peddlers. "You have veteran venders, and you have disabled veteran venders," he said. "Those are different categories of licenses, and they can sell anything. Then you have pushcart venders, licensed by the Department of Health." (Hot dogs, Italian ice.) "Then you have non-pushcart foodproduce venders. Then you have legal, unlicensed venders who sell merchandise covered by the First Amendment." (Art work, Jesus figurines.) "Then you have non-First Amendment craft venders who often claim that they should be protected by the First Amendment." (Peace-sign necklaces, Che Guevara coffee mugs.) "Then you have legitimate general-merchandise venders." (Would-be pashminas, calling cards.) "Then, of course, you have unlicensed venders of legitimate general merchandise. And then you have unlicensed rip-off venders." (Fake Rolexes, "Da Vinci Code" bootlegs.) "Then you have merchandise venders who hire veterans just to be there so they can claim veteran privilege. Then you have the issue, in our district, of Ground Zero venders who are trying to sell memorabilia and tribute-type merchandise. Oh, and then you have the stoop-line venders." Gerson looked at his chief of staff, Tammy To, and asked, "Did I leave anything out?"

A group of elderly women with perms--Gerson's constituents--stopped by to pay their respects. "Whoa, this is tight--fire hazard," Gerson said as they left, scooting his chair to make room. He pointed at an empty lemonade glass on the table, as a way of showing the difficulty in vender-related policing: "A vender says, 'You know, this is an article of religious worship.' The Lemon Worshippers. There are all sorts of folks out there--very ...